Tag: shop

Can of Screws

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Coffee can full of tiny screws.
In case you were wondering: it’s heavy.

It’s an old coffee can full of tiny screws. The ones on top appear to be #3-56 (fine thread) in stainless steel, though the variety beneath is diverse. All in all, weighing in at approximately 3,063g. Individual screws weigh in – from a coarse sample – between 0.11g and 0.67g each.

Not going to throw them out, but just as unlikely to know when they might ever be put to use. Or how, precisely, we’d expect to find the necessary screws buried in such a mass.

Just, please, don’t drop it on the floor.

Iterations

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Lens holders and a series of 3D-printed parts, each very slightly different.
Getting there.

One of the key benefits of a 3D printer is the ability to create prototypes rapidly. Doesn’t quite fit? Adjust the model, re-slice, and set the new print to go. When you’re down to sub-millimeter tweaks with each iteration, it’s a relief to let the machine whir and ooze out the next version.

If at first you don’t succeed, try again and again and again and again…

Alligator Clip

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
An alligator clip taped to a steel rod.
Fierce fellow!

Sometimes you stumble across a delightful artifact. One with an unknown, perhaps unknowable history. Clearly, at one point, it was necessary to hold an object in a particular place, and none of the available clips, clamps, or clasps were up to the task.

A steel rod, an alligator clip, and some electrical tape to the rescue!

What’s fascinating about this isn’t the specifics of the object, but the way that these temporary, stopgap solutions can linger. After enough time and use, they become ordinary and unremarkable. Familiar.

Until, some indefinite period of years later, a fresh set of eyes spots them in an old drawer. Look at what’s in here!

Bespoke Breadboard

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Long piece of aluminum, in process of machining mounting holes.
So many.

Need a thing, but can’t get it in the right size, right shape, right odd set of dimensions? That’s one reason to keep a workshop in the basement. If we can possibly make it, we’ll certainly try.

Pictured: a custom optics breadboard, for a very specific apparatus, with many, many drilled, tapped, and cleaned 1/4″-20 mounting holes. It’s big, and shiny, and has a bright future ahead!

Probably with lasers or something. Lots of lasers around here.

Silicone Sealant

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
“and many plastics”

Because sometimes you need to seal up a joint, and the materials that can do the job don’t play well with adhesives. When working with Delrin, you’re thankful for the excellent machinability, less so for how much of a struggle it is to get anything to stick to it. Could be worse, right? Could be PTFE (Teflon).

Even this silicone sealant is a “sort-of” solution, and it sticks to everything. Always threatens to make a real mess of things. But it’s reliable for waterproofing and can take a variety of abuses from heat to chemicals. And it comes on a “job-size package.”

Having just gone through about a dozen of these things on a single job, we may take some issue with that descriptor. And the rather optimistic 10-20 minutes to being tack-free. But it’s still impressive and effective stuff.

And compared to some other goop around here, doesn’t stink to high heaven.

Stopper Knots

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Kevlar string, of course.

There are a handful of occupations and/or hobbies which reward those interested in the craft of knot-tying. The big ones include boating, camping, climbing, and fishing. (There may be hobby overlap.) Arborists, equestrians, and surgeons need specific, functional knots, too.

Turns out so do lab technicians.

We’re slowly adding knots to our repertoire, for all manner of purposes. Pictured above: a doubled-up double overhand stopper. (A single knot was insufficiently stopper-ing given the thread diameter and pendulum bobs on hand.) Alpine butterflies, bowlines, non-slip mono loops, trucker’s hitches. Now we just want an excuse to use the Double Dragon Loop!

Dial Calipers

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Precision!

There are endless options for measuring sizes, and we use different tools for different purposes. Rulers, meter sticks, tape measures? Check. Vernier calipers, both mechanical and digital? Check. Precision micrometers? Check.

Counting twelve-inch floor tiles? Check.

Precision matters, as does scale. A tape measure is helpful when moving furniture, even if it can’t determine the thickness of a sheet of paper like a micrometer can. Micrometers: really useless for determining if that new cabinet’s going to fit beside the CNC machine.

These Mitutoyo dial calipers – good for up to 12 inches in 0.001-inch increments – are kind of like a super-precise ruler. They’re in decimal inches, not metric, which makes them ideal for use with our lathe: also inch-only. (The calipers are more precise, so you know when you’re off by 0.003 inches.)

Not that we need that level of precision machining every day. But it’s good to know the option’s on the table.